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C. Committees Established by the Board

Board Committees

Board Committee on the Annual Meeting

By-Law definition: [n. a.]

Charge: The Board Committee on the Annual Meeting will take as its province all aspects that bear on the mounting of the Annual Meeting of the Society. It will not legislate policy, but will make recommendations and report periodically to the Board of Directors.

It will initiate proposals regarding the venue of future meeting sites.

It will engage in periodic review of policy matters governing how papers are selected.

It will engage in periodic review of the guidelines and conventions that govern such things as number of sessions, length of papers, panels, study groups, invited papers, plenary sessions, coordination of policies affecting papers sessions and performance, and the like.

It will undertake to review and advise on the programmatic and fiscal effects of activities and events that occur at the site during the Annual Meeting but that are not sponsored by the AMS, including events sponsored by affiliate societies.

It will serve as a sounding board for the President, the Executive Director, the Program Committee, and the Performance Committee in response to ad hoc problems as they arise.

It will be free to take the initiative in rethinking any aspect of the Annual Meeting that may seem in need of rethinking.

Guidelines: Evolving, based on periodic reviews and issues arising.

Constitution: rotation of members. The Committee will comprise the Vice President, who will serve as chair; two members of the Board of Directors, who will be chosen from adjacent terms; a member from outside the Board, appointed by the President in consultation with the Vice President, for a two-year term staggered with the Vice President’s term; and the Executive Director, ex officio.

Timetable: If the committee suggests significant changes, which are then approved by the Board, the Vice President will make a report to the membership at the Business Meeting and Awards Presentation of the Annual Meeting.

Other Concerns:

In its deliberations, the Committee will be sensitive to the role of its colleagues on the Program and Performance Committees, and will be careful not to interfere in an untimely way with the complex work of those committees.

The AMS seeks to hold its annual meetings in locations that are safe for both opposite-gender and same-gender couples. The Society prefers not to meet in states and locales whose constitutions or laws explicitly deny any legal recognition for same-gender couples or unmarried opposite-gender couples, although this will be only one factor in its selection of venues. For each annual meeting the Executive Director shall negotiate with the host venue to provide lists of hospitals, clinics, doctors, lawyers, and other providers of professional services who are committed to recognize and respect same-gender couples and unmarried opposite-gender couples among our members and attendees. In principle, the Society will not enter into contracts with venues that do not provide such lists and guarantee equal treatment of same-gender and opposite-gender couples.

Travel reimbursement: TBD

Board Committee on Committees

By-Law definition: [n. a.]

Charge: Develop and maintain Administrative Handbook for the conduct of committees; establish guidelines for reporting committee matters to the Board and the Newsletter editor; recommend potential committee members to the President; evaluate the mission, function, and usefulness of existing committees; propose, as needed, the establishment of new committees or the elimination of old ones.

Guidelines: TBD

Constitution: rotation of members. Four to five members; including: President-elect or Past President (who will serve as chair); one Director-at-large; two or three additional members from the membership at large.

Timetable: Outgoing committee chairs, in their final report to the President, will include a brief assessment of the committee description in the administrative handbook, to be sent to the chair of the Committee on Committees.

Other Concerns: The list of suggested committee members should include several times as many names as needed to fill committee vacancies, and should be as broad as possible. The President and Executive Director should keep the committee chair up to date with people who have volunteered for committee service. Members of the committee who are not on the Board will need to receive the committee-history lists from the Executive Director.